A lot can happen in a week! Facebook has completely fallen off the score board (though not too far behind). Almond Press, last week’s heel-nipper, has been pushed out by Facebook.
The Writer increased the number of people they’re sending to the contest submission page, earning them a third-place traffic spot. However, Reedsy knocked The Writer out of first place for entrants, soaring up from third last week!
A Note About Authors and Change
In your writing career, you are likely to see similar movement take place when it comes to bestseller rankings, sales, advertising, or the publishing market as a whole. One of the best things you can do for your authorship is to be flexible. This includes being open to learning new skills and understanding new concepts.
There are some authors who hit a ceiling in their craft only because they seem to be allergic to change. They don’t want to adapt, pivot, shift, enhance. But life doesn’t work that way, and certainly not when it comes to business. Just like in the wild, if you don’t evolve, you eventually die off.
Fortunately for us writers, there is the possibility of making adjustments to your career as you go along (no advanced genetics or millennia of waiting needed!). For example, years ago, CreateSpace was one of the (if not THE) top indie publishing platforms. It was easy to use, fast, and free. What’s not to love?
But, when Amazon bought, then absorbed, then eliminated CreateSpace, that was a huge shift for a lot of us who had been using it. There may have been people who kept publishing through CreateSpace out of sheer stubbornness. They had finally figured the system out and had a good thing going and they didn’t want that to change. They didn’t want to have to learn a new process or move to a different platform.
And that could have been their downfall as an author. However, those of us who did pivot and adjust to the new situation have continued on relatively easily. Yes, there were some glitches early on and a bit of a learning curve (for us and Amazon, mind you), but we figured it out eventually. If you were someone who refused to make adjustments, you got left behind.
So, stay open-minded. Don’t be afraid of change, just do the best you can to make it work for you. What was THE book promotion tool last week, might be obsolete this week. The sales strategy that you’ve been using for the past three years could stop getting you results next month. But, when / if this happens, don’t just throw up your hands and give up completely. Or, worse, don’t keep trying the same strategies and expecting different results.
Shift and take your authorship to the next level!
Speaking of kicking things up a notch, don’t forget to enter the short story contest before the 31st! Click here to submit your stories.
